Maybe Together
by Somewhere Sky
Summary: <html><head></head>Ginny is struggling post-war. Is there going to be someone there to hold her with her world caving in? Draco/Ginny - Rating is subject to change.</html>
1. Common Mistakes

**Maybe Together**  
>By: <em>Somewhere Sky<em>

Disclaimer: _Of course, as always - the rights to the Harry Potter realm of fiction belongs solely _  
><em>to J.K Rowling and her brilliant mind. Although I may admit, I shall always be slightly jealous.<em>

Chapter 1:  
><span>Common Mistakes<span>

This entire story was based off of this quote:  
>"<em>These are not rough times ... just the beginning of really good times.<em>"  
>» — Denise N. Tracy<p>

* * *

><p>It was a cold day when the Hogwarts Express left its lot at Platform 9 &amp; 34. It had been raining for most of the morning, the droplets of water touching ground, cloth and people. The clouds spread little light onto the streets and through the woods that were passed. Ginny couldn't help but feel glum, the darkness seemed everlasting and the depressing weather even more so. She believed that even with the war over, something strange was awaiting them. This young redhead, with a fire in her blood and a temper not to be tampered with was fearful. She had grown to expect the unexpected but she had never felt so lost in time.

For Merlin's sake, Ginny fumed in her mind, her brother was gone and her family was separated. Ginny was forced to bring into her mind happier memories because the burrow had never been so sad. Ginny, one of seven children had never thought to be one of six. In fact, she had never thought the burrow would become extinct to it's once happy atmosphere. Now in the home, the once perfectly chaotic home, her parents hid in mourning and the place had lost all hope. It had become a house of silence where George refused to visit, Ron and Ginny had not spoken and although Percy tried to help their parents, he achieved nothing. The burrow had become a nightmare, a sad place with only sad memories. Even Bill and Charlie came around, Charlie from Romania and Bill from his home with Fleur - and yet, the Weasley's grew none the stronger, and just as sorrowful to see all but their poor Fred.

The train's wheels screeched along the tracks as the windows continued to fog and the silence never wavered. Ginny sat alone in her cabin, she seemed almost too still as she sat with her hand crouched under her chin and her elbow perched on a ledge. A pair of eyes looked in, watching her through the glass in awe at her peacefulness, unknowing to her troubles.

The door creaked.

The solemn eyes of the redhead by the window quickly transformed into the emotionless eyes of someone else. Her eyes had shed any personality and invoked a rather shaded green to hover over the once so beautifully energized colour beneath them. Ginny's eyes, naturally a gorgeous emerald had lost their sparkle and for the moment between the transformations the watching boy outside her cabin saw Ginny Weasley looking vulnerable. For one moment he saw _her_, and only her. He saw a young girl in anguish, absolutely torn to pieces and falling apart into mere shards of her own heart. While he admired her courage, his moment to see Ginny without her heart in barricades was short, brief and barely noted as she turned cold and hard at the door. As soon as that door revealed a presence other than her own, her eyes locked in place and her heart locked in solemnity.

A growl escaped her lips as Draco Malfoy entered the compartment. Even the wind sounded angry as he stepped in, slamming up against the glass in a repeated motion. Invigorating was the atmosphere as Draco hovered over Ginny in the empty compartment.

"Uh, the others are full ..." he said just above a whisper. Ginny merely nodded in response. She left him there to stand childishly until he finally came to realize that she wasn't going to tell him to sit or not to sit, if anything she acted as a ghost in the corner. She was merely a vaporization of smoke in the corner, no sound, just peacefulness. Draco could hardly tell if her slim silhouette was breathing, if she was even alive. It took her blinking a few times before he stopped himself from shaking her body into remission, he almost feared that she might break had he done so.

That's when Draco first found himself revering in her beauty, Ginny Weasley,she had lost quite a bit of weight that emphasized all the right curves and all the right body parts. Her hair had been grown out and lay in tangles down her back. The subtle but magnificent red was nothing short of breath-taking. Draco couldn't deny her stunning appeal, she was as undeniably good-looking as a Veela woman. Her eyes intoxicating, her smile (should he ever be so lucky) would have him dropped to his knees in awe should he be given the chance to see a mourning Weasley smile. Aside from the realization that the youngest of Weasley's was all grown up, Draco couldn't shake the uncomfortableness of the compartment.

A quiet Weasley was never a happy Weasley.

A knock came onto the door, Hermione appeared, not even glancing towards Draco and heading straight to Ginny's side. She wrapped an arm around the young girl and stroked her bangs in comfort but Ginny shrugged her away. Hermione's eyes were revelled in shock, and she tried once more to comfort the slim august-haired darling but was greeted with yet another cold shoulder and shrug off of any physical attempts to hug.

"Gin, I don't know what else to do, this grief is impossible. We're all going through a really rough time right now, especially with losing Fred and .. I know you don't want to listen but I've read up on how to help soothe the sad-minded, a book isn't much for uncovering all the mysteries of the psyche, but it gave me great insight, if you'll only let me help. Harry, Ron and I are all so worried about you. You remember him don't you? Your older brother, who also lost Fred to the war? Just Ginny ... please." Hermione stressed, her arms waving in the air slightly. The brunette was in anguish trying to solve the riddle of Ginny's grief.

"You can't just expect to fix her based off a book Granger. Grief isn't a problem it's a process." Draco mumbled from his bench. The eyes that met his were full of scorn and hatred and he looked away in embarrassment after realizing the girls he was speaking to. With his head looking out the window, Ginny glanced to him and to Hermione in a sweep.

"He's right." she said to her friend, "I've gotta do this on my own."

"But Ginny, Malfoy is the last person in all of Wizarding London who would even begin to comprehend the insanity of grief and pain - "

"Hermione Granger, if you do not stop bombarding me with your silly treatments on how to make me better I will honestly never speak a word to you again. I said I need to do this alone and you have got to let me." the girl stressed, her hair seeming much more scarlet now that she was aflame with frustration, her cheeks adorning a reddish glow.

Oh, how the tension quickly spread, with tears rolling down her face and a broken heart in tow, Hermione left. Her feet shuffled away as her hands wiped the dripping orbs from her eyes. Ginny hadn't meant to be so rude. Hermione was so caring and so kind and she loved her, but she couldn't stand the pressure. Ginny was feeling as though some weight was pushing down on her heart and the more people who came around to talk about what happened - the bigger the weight became, until Ginny felt nauseous with desolation.

"Wow, bit harsh don't you think?" Draco spoke again, uncaring as to who was in the compartment with him. The Gryffindor never fazed him before and she would not faze him now. She let what words came out of his cowardly lips drip into the air and be forgotten. The war was over and so were his ties with the Dark Lord, or so it was meant to be believed. Ginny wasn't so naive, she wasn't going to allow his mistakes be ignored.

"Ah, aren't you the little expert?" Spat Ginny with her tongue full of sarcasm. Had her saliva been compensated by venom, Draco would have fallen ill.

"I would like to think so." Was all he said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Don't get ahead of yourself Ferret. You're nothing special." She spoke again, the hatred in her voice had become evil and unforgiving. Draco chose to ignore it and the two spoke nothing more to one another. Rather, they both sat staring out into the dark clouds, the sun non-existent and the trees looking just as dead and dreary. The moodiness of the weather mocked the two, mirroring their attitude.

The ride to Hogwarts was in fact, an incredibly long ride.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>: A new story, exciting right? I decided to try my hands at writing a Ginny/Draco Fan Fiction. I'm still not quite sure where I am headed with this one but I can promise that it will be as great as my last. I love writing for all you readers out there! So do enjoy, but remember a happy writer is a persistent writer, so do **R&R **please.

_~ Somewhere Sky_


	2. A Shared Sorrow

**Maybe Together**  
>By: <em>Somewhere Sky<em>

Disclaimer: _Of course, as always - the rights to the Harry Potter realm of fiction belongs solely _  
><em>to J.K Rowling and her brilliant mind. Although I may admit, I shall always be slightly jealous.<em>

Chapter 2:  
>A Shared Sorrow<p>

This entire story was based off of this quote:  
>"<em>These are not rough times ... just the beginning of really good times.<em>"  
>» — Denise N. Tracy<p>

* * *

><p>Ginny sat, rigid and nonspeaking at the large Great Hall dining table. The high amount of chatter and excitement seemed to take away from the fact that the initial houses had disappeared. You could not tell this by the furniture and you could not tell this by the house decor but you could tell by the variety of students from their opposing houses all grouped together, that the war had ended within Hogwarts just as much as it had died outside the castle doors. The remembrance of a loud, hissing voice echoing to relinquish Harry Potter crippled Ginny. All the different houses seemed to vanish, no longer was there a divide amongst the students. They found it upon themselves to sit where they were welcome and not where it was required. There was no denying that the war happened, as Ginny continued to witness broken walls that had not yet been restored, and yet the aftermath was hardly full of the distress and torment Ginny had anticipated.<p>

The laughter was loud and the smiles even brighter as all the students, previous and new, adapted to this new world. The indifference was no longer present and students were encouraged to be sociable with all of the houses. There was a defiant happiness in the room and Ginny began to feel a cloud over her heart as she sat alone. Her plate still left unfilled and untouched, the thought of food was no thought at all – it was just not an option. Ginny's thoughts pondered about her friends across the hall and the others in the school. How could they laugh she wondered, how could they not cry?

Where the professor's sat was disturbing, with the black robe of Snape non-present. A once great potion's master, killed for loving a muggle-born and for trying to protect her only son. Nearly-Headless Nick had not been himself after witnessing such a bloodbath in the very halls of Hogwarts, he did not float as he usually did but rather he dragged as he moved across the room, speaking only when spoken to and not bombarding the room with his large and booming voice. The evidence was there, the death was among them and the difference shined ever-so-brightly into blindness, and yet, the chuckling of girls and boys in remission echoed where dead bodies lay only months before.

Ron, her own brother, one who lost the same family as she, was not shaken by their loss. He embraced the loss instead as an opportunity to no longer take life for granted. Harry too had a new air about him, him being the chosen One and the one who lost it all, was _happy_. Ginny stared across, sipping from her small glass of pumpkin juice and watched all of her friends share their joy, Ron and Hermione hand-in-hand and Harry glancing across at Luna every so often with a large goofy smile on his face.

"Ah, the Weasley sits alone." the sly voice of unwanted company sounded.

"Hmm, _alone _being the benevolent key Malfoy." she repeated.

"Well, seeing as the hall is filled and students are scattering for seats, it's me or that new Hufflepuff over there digging." Draco proposed. Ginny glanced in the direction of the 11-year old boy, who found more than a single finger necessary to pick up his nose.

"I'm leaving, but if I had the choice Malfoy, I'd choose anyone over a narcissistic rake like you." Ginny told him, her eyes looking deeply into his. Ginny had never noticed his grey eyes before; she had never seen that what could have been a beautiful blue had in fact faded into silver, not of the cheap variety either. It was beautiful and Ginny could not deny it. With that thought entering her mind, Ginny left with a quick turn of her heel and refusing a glance behind her.

An eerie silence, a quiet peacefulness seemed to follow Ginny through the halls. With all the students at dinner, the halls were an empty place. Ginny enjoyed the moments of time where she was able to be solely with her thoughts, with the 'swoosh' of the candle flames on the walls and with the occasional mumbling of the portraits. At last, Ginny could grieve.

She did just that.

Her body fell flat into the wall, her head in her hands and she fell in a crippled mass onto the floor. Her tears and cry sounded through the hallways. Ginny was not aware that she had awoken a special moaning. She was not aware that the moaning came from someone other than her, in the washroom beside Ginny and from a stall hidden deep, came the moaning of one Myrtle and her cries carried outward.

Ginny had always been one to run to Myrtle and to cheer up her sobbing soul, but this day was different; Ginny's heart couldn't strengthen to aide another when she herself was broken. She took her wand from her boot and lifted it in a wave making a small frame of her family appear in her hands. This was the photo Ginny had carried with her since the war, a small reminder of her loss and a small reminder of what was, what could be and what is impossible now that Fred was gone.

Her brothers had always been there for her, when there was a problem – they were helping. If she was being bothered by one or several people – they were taking care of her. Now, with Fred gone and George behind, she hadn't spoken a bit to her older brother.

"Ugh!" Ginny cried to the unhearing hallways. Ginny, out of frustration, tossed the precious picture in the hands up against the walls and watched it shatter.

"Here." said the same voice that had been following Ginny that day. What Ginny hadn't expected was to wipe away her tearing eyes and see Draco Malfoy mending her broken photo frame.

"T...t...thanks." Ginny stuttered as he handed it to her. Her hand grazed his in the exchange and Ginny was taken away by the softness of his skin, the gentle feel of his hand against hers and a sudden butterfly presence in her stomach.

"It won't last forever Weasley." he said to her, while slowly pulling away from her hand.

"The memories?" she asked.

"No, the pain." and with that, he winked and walked off toward his dormitory.

Ginny's hand immediately jumped to the aide of her stomach, wondering if she was ill due to a lack of food at dinner. For the first time in months, Ginny was feeling the first signs of relief. It was a foreign wrenching in her stomach, a painful twisting feeling that could not be removed, but Ginny still found herself in higher spirits than before. With some soul, and a little bit of heart Ginny stood and walked into the Girl's restroom.

"Myrtle?" Ginny shouted.

The cry was easily recognizable, the sound sifting through the stinking room and leaving echoes in her wake as she spun around in front of Ginny.

"Little Weasley!" she shouted. All Ginny could do was nod, she would have loved to smile, to feel her cheeks burn with happiness and her teeth shake with laughter but Ginny could not, and so she nodded.

"Hi Myrtle"

"Your brother died, I saw him" Myrtle told the young girl.

"I miss him." Ginny whispered,

"Oh I wouldn't. " Myrtle belted out from inside one of the stalls, she had been storming around the whole room unable to stay in one place, pounding through the stalls, doors slamming and her voice shrill.

Ginny just ignored her and instead found a spot on a window ledge to sit. The glass showed her the outside world, the gloom had not washed away and the rain continued in its downpour, but one difference was made, a tall blonde-haired boy raced through the school grounds in search for what seem like a place to ... read?

Ginny watched his slim silhouette dodge under one of the many towers to stay dry and open the book that had soaked while in his hands. This surprise was a humble one; Ginny had never pegged Malfoy for an intellectual, or anything other than a prat for that matter. But for once, even just for those few solid moments, Ginny felt envious of the boy she hated. Because he was content in life, and that's exactly where Ginny wished she could be.

Content. At Ease, in a relaxing state of mind that didn't involve facing inner turmoil on a daily basis. She was fighting a raging war inside of her heart every time she was reminded of her loss, of the loss of others also. Swords swept at wands and wands at barrels of fallen ashes as she continued to try to win a battle against sorrow at its finest.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Ah.

And so the second chapter is complete, I did get a few reviews on the first Chapter about making Ginny 'One of Five' children rather than one of seven. I did fix that mistake upon others. Thank you cherished and darling readers, I show my love to you every time I post a new chapter, and is in return you felt like putting a smile on this wonderful face ... do please **R&R**.

_~ Somewhere Sky_


	3. Same Indifference

**Maybe Together**  
>By: <em>Somewhere Sky<em>

Disclaimer: _Of course, as always - the rights to the Harry Potter realm of fiction belongs solely _  
><em>to J.K Rowling and her brilliant mind. Although I may admit, I shall always be slightly jealous.<em>

Chapter 3:  
>Same Indifference<p>

This entire story was based off of this quote:  
>"<em>These are not rough times ... just the beginning of really good times.<em>"  
>» — Denise N. Tracy<p>

* * *

><p>The clouds grew ever more grey and darkened as the night continued on in its own grief of short patterned raindrops and a brief wind that waved in on occasion bringing chills and small bumps to the arms of Ginny. She was walking towards a gravestone that sat alone in a dark field of withered grass and empty trees. While feeling hopeless, scattered and scared, Ginny could only walk forward. She tried so desperately to stop, to pull her body away from the mound of dirt in the ground and the knowing body beneath it, she tried to run in the opposite direction but she could not. Ginny's body was being pushed by some unrecognizable man, he was encouraging her to go see him, to go see her brother in the ground.<p>

Before Ginny could arrive at the stone of her deceased brother, Ginny awoke from the nightmare in an unbelievable sweat, tears in rivers down her cheeks. This dream was a reoccurring one, it had haunted many of her nights leaving Ginny without sleep and without closure. If Ginny could not find it in herself to visit Fred in a dream, she would not have the courage to visit him in reality. What pegged the red head's mind even more was the man that was telling her to go, the smooth voice that reassured her it would all be okay. It was so familiar and yet so indistinguishable.

Ginny's body crippled beneath her sheets, shrivelled and empty Ginny had become so caught up in grief she had become merely a carcass and nothing more. She barely felt alive, it hurt to think and to breathe, even to move. She felt grief all over her body as if it had inflicted actual physical damage. Ginny could not remember the last time a morsel of food had breached her lips and had someone known the lack of eating, sleeping and the constant crying were happening – Ginny feared admittance to St. Mungo's. Hospital.

How could this all be? Ginny wondered, pondering that same thought over and over in her mind, why was she not smiling? How could she not feel a tiny bit of happiness in her soul? Why did her bones shake and her heart feel so blackened? Worst of all, Ginny wondered why she could not shred these terrible feelings. A hatred towards life for taking her brother, a swearing towards Merlin for the lack of family luck and a terrible envy towards those who felt no pain. A hatred was beginning to boil beneath young, small, innocent and fragile Ginny's veins, was she the only one who cared for the dead?

_Tap_.

Ginny listened.

_Tap. Tap. Tap_.

There, up against the windowsill was a beautiful owl, its large eyes glowing in the early dawn and its feathers too shining without the need for sun. Ginny had not expected such a rapping at the window from such an honourable and gorgeous bird at such an odd hour. The owl sat still, well-behaved and confident as Ginny, without that same air around her, slowly tip-toed to answer it's call.

"Where'd you come from?" she whispered to the bird. At first the owl did nothing, it merely stared back at Ginny with an odd expression before it nudged her hand with it's beak. It had a small note tied around it's leg and it was minutes before Ginny recognized the colours of the ribbon, the green and the silver were a Slytherin Trademark much like Gryffindor's red and gold but why on earth would a Slytherin be wanting to - _Malfoy_.

Ginny could hardly wait to see what Malfoy might be wanting to say to her, after his pathetic attempts to chat her up as if they were chums and the past was not relevant.

_Weasley,_

_Come to the Room of Requirement._

_D._

"Merlin's beard, the git has lost his mind if he actually thinks I will" Ginny snorted. At Ginny's response, the once still, silent and lovely bird had begun to nip at Ginny's fingers, pecking and pecking until Ginny tried to swat at it. The pecking stopped, but the owl too had lost it's mind and had gone loose in the Girl's Dormitory, flying around like some sort of wild Hippogriff. Ginny chased it out of the Dormitory and into the common room, chasing it until it led her straight through the portrait hole only to run right into Malfoy himself.

"Get that bloody thing away from here Malfoy!" she shouted at him, staring down at her hands where blood had begun to surface from her wounds.

"Bloody hell, well I told him to be persistent but, blimey, I hadn't expected this." Draco replied trying to refrain from laughing.

"Oh please, like this was a coincidence Malfoy. You and that ridiculous menace of yours are up to something and I'm no fool. Now before i teach the both of you a lesson you don't want to learn in transfiguration I'd advise you disappear and quickly." Ginny yelled with almost a venom seeping from her words.

"Not unless you come with me" Draco responded. He was content and determined to take the young Weasley with him and to follow out on his plans for the morning. Whether she set his robes to flame, he would not fail.

"Why in all of Wizarding London would I want to?"

"I haven't a clue, I just think you should." he said with a smirk.

"Not a chance." She said once more, this time with her hand on her hips and her lips pursed with authority. Draco couldn't help but admire the young Weasley, she was charming though deceitful and positively beautiful despite her bedtime wardrobe. Malfoy pleaded with a smile and he pleaded with his charm but none of these usually useful quirks were working on the young girl. She merely shook her head and attempted to head back into the dormitory. However, when she turned to face the Fat lady's portrait she was nowhere to be seen, leaving the Weasley in the hallway with nowhere to go.

"I knew you wouldn't come, so I came to you. Just come on Weasley, where's the harm in tagging along?" Draco said, his voice cunning but excited.

"You might infect me"

"With what exactly? My good looks aren't contagious you know." he told her.

"With your hatred Malfoy, with whatever made you sick enough to hurt me, my friends and my family. With whatever made you so spiteful that you could follow in Lord Voldemort's footsteps and carry out what he wanted. I do not want to be made sick by you Malfoy. Just leave me the bloody hell alone." Ginny said, waving her arm in front of his face as if threatening him. Her face turning a blush red from being infuriated and her body chilled and shaking from her yelling.

In response to her anger, Draco grabbed her wrist and they apparated outside of the room of requirement.

"Oh for Merlin's sake Malfoy, who the bloody hell do you think you are taking me here? I told you "no" you sick and infuriating ferret! She shouted, her voice echoing in the hallways and awakening many portraits in the process.

"Shut it would you? We're not supposed to be here."

"That's right, that's why I'm leaving Malfoy" Ginny told him as she pulled out her wand from her stocking.

"Ugh, no you aren't, follow me" he said as the door to the the Room of Requirement opened up and he pulled her inside. The room was just a room, it had shelves and shelves of books, some sofas and chairs to lounge on, some portraits too hung there in silence but nothing more. There was nos pecial hidden magic, no fancy collages or exciting new finds, it was overdone with simplicity. Ginny had to wonder if someone without taste had requested this room.

"It's just a room Malfoy."

"Ah, but it's not young Weasley"

"I'm growing impatient Malfoy, get to the point."

"It's a sanctuary - a place to find peace - I can see that you're broken, I see it in your eyes. The grief is tearing you apart and you stopped being the beautiful person you used to be. Blame me, blame my family, blame Voldemort and the war but stop beating yourself up about it. It's time you accepted what has happened and move on." Draco said just barely above a whisper, he was afraid of her anger, thoughhe was merely being honest, the boy still feared the young girl. "Just get over it Weasley, you can't change the past." he said withough emotion.

"Get over it? You think it's easy? -"

"No that's not -"

"I lost my brother! I lost friends and my family and I lost so much more Malfoy! Why? Because of some obsession with a superior race and you want me to just get over it?" She screamed, her lungs irritated by the power in which she used to belt out the frustration. "You are insufferable, a little prat who understand nothing about grief or sorrow or even losing someone! You have no one!"

"Get over yourself Weasley! You weren't the only one in the war you self-centered little witch!" he shouted back at her. Both of them were angry, they stood in a duel pose each at one end of the room, the two of them raging with anger and stubborness.

"Me self-centered? Who was the egotistical prick who brought the death eaters into Hogwarts? The coward who couldn't stand up to his own father and thought he could just bring evil onto sacred grounds. You think you are so much better, you think that because you didn't kill Dumbledore that you are innocent but you have done so much worse. You brought them here, you made our lives miserable and the worst part is, now you think you deserve some sort of sympathy. You don't, and you'll never get it from me."

The room was full of hot air and hatred, had an observer been in a watchful distance they might have felt the heat radiating from the other side of the door. The two were frozen in a bitter warfare, a final meeting of the minds had been met, after years of harassment and war, the two had found their grounds in which to confront the other.

"I did not know any better! You have to understand that we come from two completely different worlds! I did not know the love, the friendship and the closeness you did with your family. I had learned obedience and dominance, I had learned that superiority was always a first priority and that the Dark Lord was going to be the next ruler of the wizarding world. My family feared The Dark Lord, they shook at the thought of him, my father was convinced that if we behaved in accordance to the Dark Side that if they were to succeed, than we would be safe... you don't understand what it was like Weasley."

"Good always prevails Malfoy"

"You scorn me because I made mistakes, but who is the bigot now Weasley?" Draco said, "I brought you here because you are miserable, I read that a sanctuary or a quiet place calms misery" and with those words he left.

As he stormed out the door, his heart dragging behind him and his hope weighted down, he had not heard Ginny's response:

"You sound like Hermione." she whispered.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>: There you have it, chapter number three. It took me a while to get around to writing it but I did, mostly because I'm sick and was listening to some instrumental music that inspired me. I always seem to be listening to some instrumental or another that always adds to the emotion of a scene. This chapter was a little more angry but i think it helped the characters find a more common ground, a better understanding of where Ginny's anger is coming from and where Draco's more caring manner is coming from. I'm not saying Draco is a changed man but Ginny might be warming up to his cold heart.

_Read & Review_ as always

_~ Somewhere Sky_


	4. Mundane Terrors

**Maybe Together**  
>By: <em>Somewhere Sky<em>

Disclaimer: _Of course, as always - the rights to the Harry Potter realm of fiction belongs solely _  
><em>to J.K Rowling and her brilliant mind. Although I may admit, I shall always be slightly jealous.<em>

Chapter 4:  
><span>Mundane Terrors<span>

This entire story was based off of this quote:  
>"<em>These are not rough times ... just the beginning of really good times.<em>"  
>» — Denise N. Tracy<p>

* * *

><p>Draco Malfoy was livid, he had surpassed any type of frustration and skipped ahead into full-blown rage. On his return to his dormitory he had punched into one of the many Hogwarts walls, a knuckle or three shattering as he did so. A female voice giggled, the echo was quaint but with the silence of the hallways the laughter seemed much louder and Draco found himself being laughed at by a portrait.<p>

"Oh shove it." he said to the sounding female. She was dressed in a large gown that engorged much of her body like a sponge. Her face was small, and her mouth far too long but she had the most beautiful emerald eyes... just like ...

"Aw, is the little boy upset?" she teased.

"You blimey ..." he began.

"Oh shush child, I wasn't the one smacking my fist into the wall, was I?" she said too him, her arms crossed and her smile tilting into an unneeded smirk.

Draco was not in the mood to chat, let alone a distasteful spat with an overly obnoxious and pompous portrait on a staircase. As he slowly descended away from the horrid woman, he dragged his hand just slightly along the wall, just enough to tip the picture and watch the young lady fall out of her chair and out of the portrait without so much as a yelp.

"Bloody Portrait..." Draco mumbled. No matter what he fussed out, whether in anger or out of exhaustion, no matter how loud or how softly he said it; Draco couldn't ignore his aching heart. Draco was feeling disappointed, an unusual emotion to encompass a Malfoy Man. As a Malfoy, there was one concept that aspired greatness over all others and that was the sake of winning. A Malfoy never lost but none the less Draco had. He had gotten his hopes up that change might be a possibility despite all conflicting factors, what Draco hadn't anticipated was the Weasley change. The clan of redheaded obnoxious ones were always such a cheerful bunch, they always had the right answers and the best of ideas. To lose a to a Weasley who had lost her way, felt like an even larger disappointment.

It was time Draco stopped trying to charm the young Weasley; it had been months since the war had ended and for once he was now without his family's chains shackled around him. Draco was done trying to please everyone else. With one last glance at the portrait that mocked him, her silhouette struggling to gain composure, Draco descended the stairs and finished his night in the library.

Ginny was frantic, never gad she been more blood-boiling angry. Never had she felt such danger in her heart. Draco Malfoy was a terrible man, he had never let that reputation elude him. In fact, he cherished knowing that he was ever so powerful because of his name, because of his money and because of his family's association to the Dark Lord.

'_Who is the bigot now Weasley?_"

Malfoy's words echoed a terrible symphony in Ginny's mind. Was he right? Was Ginny prejudiced by Malfoy's dark past, was she holding a grudge that needed to be let go of? Ginny did not know. Everything about the war had changed her life, disrupted the good and embraced the dreadful. The war was done, it had been long since over, all physical damages restored, family members returned who were lost. The dead were not forgotten, but Ginny was still strangled by the emptiness it brought into her family.

Fred.

Ginny could not let go of Fred, she could not shake the idea that Malfoy was the reason her brother did not return to the burrow. Her loving brother, caring elder, and insanely humourous friend was never going to reenter their lives. She blamed anyone who helped the Dark Lord. The Malfoy's being first on her list. Whether or not Draco Malfoy was intimately involved did not matter.

Ginny sighed. She could not blame Malfoy, she could not blame his family, she could only blame herself for not doing more. Her face dropped into her hands as she sat in the empty stairway. Her tears echoing in broken sounds.

"Oi! Not another blubbering child! Get!" cried a strange portrait with her frame tipped sideways. She struggled to stand herself upright enough to make her voice audible to Ginny. Ginny let a scowl succumb her face as her body, wilted, gathered to stand a walk away. Malfoy wasn't too far in the distance, he was close enough that she heard his footsteps, she followed him unknowingly. After many staircases, many turns, many hallways and through many doors, she found him sulking in a corner of the library. His face much too similar to Hermione wrapped up in a book.

She couldn't help but stare at him, admiring his silken hair and his beautiful pale face, how could someone looking so angelic have been so evil? How could this man, one who tortured her family, her friends and herself not look horrid? Ginny let a small smile grace her lips, just a flicker and Malfoy caught it. He had turned his face toward the doorway just in time to see that hidden gem only for Ginny to respond with a nauseating pursing of her lips. She left.

Once again, Ginny had run away, she had been running away from anything that could make her sadness evaporate. It was some sick masochistic curse she had developed. Her friends should be making her smile, not Draco Malfoy. Her feet picked up in speed, Ginny was feeling as if she were in a trance the entire way to the Common Room. When her feet had finally planted themselves inside the portrait, Ginny had discovered she was a little too late. There was Ron and Hermione restful on each others shoulders and Harry was surely in his dormitory fast asleep. Her malfoy driven cheer could not be replaced by the love and affection of her friends and so Ginny felt she must follow suit and she ran into the girl's Dormitory.

Slipping out of her school uniform and into her pajamas, Ginny couldn't shake her smile, she felt a brief sense of purpose and relief while picturing Malfoy's frustrated expression in the library. She had annoyed him and although this made her happy in itself, she felt something more there.

She might just possibly be hoping to see him again.

* * *

><p>Author's Note: I am so sorry it took me so long to put this chapter up and I do realize it's fairly small, so I apologize for that as well. As you all know, life gets in the way sometimes. Enjoy the read and as always, <strong>R&amp;R<strong>.

~ _Somewhere Sky_


	5. Mended Smiles

**Maybe Together**  
>By: Somewhere Sky<p>

Disclaimer: _Of course, as always - the rights to the Harry Potter realm of fiction belongs solely_  
><em>to J.K Rowling and her brilliant mind. Although I may admit, I shall always be slightly jealous.<em>

Chapter 5:  
>Mended Smiles<p>

This entire story was based off of this quote:  
>"<em>These are not rough times ... just the beginning of really good times.<em>"  
>» — Denise N. Tracy<p>

* * *

><p>What is really incredible, or so Ginny thought, was that even after such an incredible tragedy; the Wizarding World was still so beautiful. Even after the mounds of deaths, the blood-splattered grounds and the terrible destruction of Hogwarts. The castle and its surroundings were just as strikingly phenomenal as ever. It was as if nothing had happened. These both excited and depressed Ginny. She wanted nothing more than to feel a lesser pain in her heart, to continue on living as Fred would have done and to carry on his legacy of extreme insanity and fantasticalness. Ginny wanted nothing more than to live as though he had not died in vain, as others did.<p>

The red-head remained silent in her thoughts as she sat in the Great Hall during breakfast, she smiled in bits as her friends chatted around her, an improvement nonetheless, she offered up a nod when necessary in the conversation as though to remain alive. But still she could not manage to eat. No morsel of food touched her soft, pale lips.

The lack of sleep and the lack of eating were beginning to drain Ginny; she was sluggish in the classrooms, very sour and almost zombie-like in her mannerisms. She moved so slowly as she walked that it seemed as though she was yet another Hogwarts ghost. She was merely a cloud of nothingness dusting its way through the halls of the bright and formal Hogwarts School.

Ginny tried hard, she tried so hard to lift her own spirit but it had broke, it had been beaten and shattered and torn. It had been thrown through a shredder of some kind that left it so tattered that it was non-existent. Her fire had burnt out.

That's when he reappeared in her mind. She hadn't been able to shake the thought of him, the ability he had to make her mouth twitch into a genuine smile when all other smiles were forced. The way his eyes seemed to sparkle with such new life in them and the way he paid attention to her pain and not just her beauty. He was not the man she had grown to hate, which made her hate him more. Draco Malfoy was not someone she could trust, or so Ginny had decided the night previously, however, there was no harm in second or fifth or fifteenth chances.

Ginny hugged her books tight to her chest and chuckled ever so slightly as she left the Great Hall, nodding in good-bye to her friends. Her mission was the Room of Requirement, he had found a place for her and she was prepared to take advantage of it immediately. Her thoughts were so scrambled, and her mind a mess of thoughts and worries that she had yet to sort out. She needed the space more than she liked to admit.

Ginny walked in a trance toward The Room of Requirement, she went unnoticed as she shoved past the hundreds of robed students piled together in groups and laughing.

"Miss Weasley!" A large sounding female voice beckoned. Ginny whipped around in response to face the ever so elderly and wonderful Professor McGonagall.

"Yes?" She questioned. A little fearful with the thought that the headmistress had just stopped her in the middle of the Hogwarts' hallway, in what seemed like a manner of which to deliver bad news.

"If you could follow me to my office please"

Young Weasley's heart shrank in a captivating stop as she recognized the tone of dismay echo in her ears.

*.*.*

"_Fred!" Ginny screamed. Mrs. Weasley grabbing onto her arms and pulling her daughter away from the still body of her older brother. _

*.*.*

Ginny followed the Headmistress into her office, her heart a palpitating mass of madness as it sped so quickly Ginny could hardly take a single breath in order to calm her uneasy mind. What could McGonagall possibly need with the young red-head that had her so distraught and out of order? What could possibly be wrong?

"I understand you've been, out of sorts, as of recently ... " McGonagall slowly let slip from her lips. The only thing Ginny could do was stare as her whole body shook with the fear that something horrible was about to occur. That something unordinary, unnatural and unlived would follow this proceeding inside the headmistress' office. As her hands continued to quake, and her lips quiver, the red-head opened her ears to listen to the news that was aboutto invoke a whole other world of responsibility and fear into her mind.

"With the war having ended, we need to bind together as a unified army. We need to bring our enemies into our circles and welcome them as friends, and have friends welcome them too. It is necessary for the Wizarding world to maintain order with Voldemort now out of the picture and the world in frenzy without a leader; so I need you to lead by example. I feel that this project will not only help our hallways here at Hogwarts but I also feel as though it may benefit us at home." She told Ginny in a voice very soft.

"I don't understand professor, what exactly do you need me for -"

"Ginervra, I understand that you and the young Mr. Malfoy have spoken since you've returned here from the war".

"No".

"It's a necessary precaution to instill order within Hogwarts".

"So get some other poor sap to do it, I am not your pawn! I just lost my brother in the war, a war that was led by Draco Malfoy's father, I will not befriend him!" As Ginny said this, she felt a pang of guilt in her chest.

"Miss. Weasley! Sit down! You do not address me like a savage, you will sit down and speak to me with proper manners!" the headmistress called out.

Ginny sat.

"I will not have any part in this professor, I refuse".

"Listen closely child, I chose you for a reason, the turmoil in your heart is a horror that no one will ever begin to understand. No one could possibly even conjure a chance to even understand briefly what you are going through. But think closely to what Mr. Malfoy is going through, although not the same; and non-comparable. He is going through something with just as much anger, sadness and hatred as you. I thought you of all people would be able to help him with the transition into this white world from the dark hole he was born in".

Ginny looked down at her hands that rested on her legs.

"I'm not asking you to be his friend, I'm not asking you to do anything other than consider what I've mentioned to you. He's just as lost".

Lost.

Lost didn't even begin to describe how Ginny currently felt. Betrayed. Abused. Angry. Frustrated. Confused. These were true emotions. And with smoke pouring from her ears as she left the headmistress' office, a glimpse of platinum blonde hair ascended the staircase towards the Room of Requirement.

He was looking for her.

Within mere seconds Ginny's feet pounded against the stone in a sprint after him.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>: It's been a year since I've updated by the looks of the things, obviously life has found a way of slowing me down but none the less here I am posting and adding to this wonderful world we've create. I hope you enjoy, It's not what I wanted it to be but because I left it for so long I forgot which direction I was taking so I had to wing it. Do **R&R** please.

~ _Somewhere Sky_


	6. Tortured Secrets

**Maybe Together**  
>By: Somewhere Sky<p>

Disclaimer: _Of course, as always - the rights to the Harry Potter realm of fiction belongs solely_  
><em>to J.K Rowling and her brilliant mind. Although I may admit, I shall always be slightly jealous.<em>

Chapter 6:  
><span>Tortured Secrets<span>

This entire story was based off of this quote:  
>"<em>These are not rough times ... just the beginning of really good times.<em>"  
>» — Denise N. Tracy<p>

* * *

><p>Exhausted; it was a tiredness that exploited his entire frame, he felt meek and weary, small and fragile. He felt as though he had been crushed beneath a troll for months unable to gasp for air. Draco was enervated, mostly convinced someone had slipped a sleeping draught into his morning coffee. His eyelids were heavy and his heart sore from inescapable rejection. Months; it had been months since Voldemort had been dragged from the living into the world of the dead; crying and screaming like a new born babe and yet Draco could still feel the hatred pouring from the eyes and hearts of students as he passed them in the hallways.<p>

Draco was one of the few Slytherin students who returned. Most had to take a leave of absence, either to care for their bewitched relatives or because they refused to support a Wizarding World that had won the battle against a superior race. A sigh of relief escaped Draco's lips as his feet tapped against the marble floor tiles, it was over. The constant reminder that there was nothing to fear couldn't have done a better job to lift the spirits of the young blonde boy.

Except when fear came in the form of a beautiful redhead storming her way across the halls with anger in her eyes. Never had Draco seen such incredibly green and wondrous eyes, let alone those very same eyes locked onto their prey of choice and nearing their target.

"How dare you!" was all Ginny could muster from her small frame. In a retort to her anger, Draco smiled. He was absolutely finished with trying to win a battle against the wits of a bitter Weasley woman.

"I haven't a clue what you mean Weasley"

"How dare you involve yourself in my life, stop putting yourself in each crevice of my life here? Stay the hell out of it. What I do, how I do it and how I am is absolutely none of your ferret-minded business!"

"Weasley ... What in Merlin's beard are you talking about?" his eyebrows raised as he watched the scarlet female fall apart in front of him.

"It's like everywhere I go I have to put up with your nonsense Malfoy and I've had it" she spat, her wand waving in the air aimlessly.

"So why come here?"

Silence.

Ginny didn't actually know why she felt the need to confront Malfoy, it made more sense to continue to avoid him and allow him to bask in her absence. Rather, she had sought him out and attacked and it made her oddly ravenous and enchanted. Ginny enjoyed her banter with the boy. She enjoyed challenging him on his very morals and ethics. If it was over nothing, she would still bathe in the glory of Malfoy's lack of pride and ambition.

Maybe she was taking advantage of this new Malfoy's lack of discipline. She couldn't resist trying to probe and poke at all the sensitive areas in the boy's life and Draco was aware of this. He saw her enjoyment and fulfillment after each of their arguments. There was a glitter in her eyes when he or she would thunder themselves away from the scene of anguish and childishness.

"I don't ... I don't ..."

"Ah, she's speechless." He said barely above a whisper. In small, hushed footsteps he stepped towards her. A slow motion that Ginny didn't notice as she nervously scratched her hands in confusion at the situation. When she finally looked up from the ground in embarrassment she was made still upon being inches away from Malfoy's face.

His eyes were a stunning silver; glistening in the dim light of the mid-day glow among the stone hallways. Orbs of perfection glancing into her very own and without anger but with an emotion Ginny couldn't quite place, contentment, a silence even, or was it relief? His lips looked so soft, she wanted to raise a finger and just gently graze them, maybe with her own, maybe if she tasted his lips upon hers...

Draco raised his hand to gently brush the glowing skin of Ginny's arm with his thumb, bowed his head, and walked away.

No words, just silence pursued the ghostly halls of Hogwarts in pure astonishment.

"This isn't how this works Draco Malfoy!" Ginny shouted to his shadow as he escaped around a corner. Her voice left an echo that resounded off the walls. She could have followed him; she could have chased after him and demanded that he finish what he started. Challenge him once more, she could have; but she didn't. Ginny's body remained firmly where it stood only moments ago. Her entire being was in shock, all that she ever knew to be true had just been defied by the laws of attraction. A huff escaped her lips, annoyance invaded her veins, at first she felt happiness and she even felt beautiful but within seconds her mind got the best of her heart and she was mortified.

Exasperated, Ginny walked back and forth in front of the entrance to the room of Requirement thinking countless thoughts about Malfoy over and over, strapped and tortured by the fact that Malfoy had never actually told her how to enter the damn room in the first place.

"Relax, Ginny" Ginny said aloud to herself.

Two words and the door opened.

"Very funny Malfoy" she said aloud again, a nearby portrait shaking his head in a burning fit of laughter.

The room was quite fit to be silent and peaceful. There was not a sound but whatever scuffling motions occurred beneath Ginny's feet. She sat, lounged away in the comfort and cushion of a nearby armchair. It's leathery surface encompassed her entire body in warmth.

*.*.*

Draco was breathless. He hadn't anticipated any of what had occurred, the touching, the innocent eyes, the closeness but most of all, the undeniable pounding of his heart that Draco was convinced was so loud that she must have heard it. He tried to muffle the sound but nothing could have shrunk the ruckus that his nerves were creating. This wasn't a feeling he wanted to confront let alone a feeling he wanted to endure at all in any sense of the form.

It wasn't common for Malfoy men to have a genuine emotion. They were trained at birth to obey. To follow. To Listen. Not to lead or to break away from the path that was so delicately planned for you before you even existed. Malfoy's did not _feel_. They were meant to be made cold and heartless, so that when it came down to a choice between mankind and a Malfoy, there would be no guilt in being selfish. But this was not a selfish feeling, it was heart bound.

Draco chalked it down to kindness; this 'feeling' was merely an exhibit of the rewards for being generous and understanding.

At least, that's what he kept telling himself.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Oh Loyal Readers, how I adore you, and for that very reason I have the sixth chapter for your review. I hope you enjoy reading this story as much as I enjoy writing it. Do **R&R** please.

~ _Somewhere Sky_


	7. Keep Together

**Maybe Together**  
>By: Somewhere Sky<p>

Disclaimer: _Of course, as always - the rights to the Harry Potter realm of fiction belongs solely  
>to J.K Rowling and her brilliant mind. Although I may admit, I shall always be slightly jealous.<em>

Chapter 7:  
>Keep Together<p>

This entire story was based off of this quote:  
>"<em>These are not rough times ... just the beginning of really good times."<em>  
>» — Denise N. Tracy<p>

* * *

><p>The wind knocked back and forth in turmoil as brooms shot across the sky. Hazy shades of green and silver bombarded through the clouds, greeted with an all too familiar blue that didn't lay its loyalties in the sky but rather to the raven. As handles flew backward, students crumpled off broom and into the tower barricades, the crowd cheered with their fallen classmates. They were aroused by the mere fact that classes were a distant memory as they devoured the drastic site before them. They need not worry their darling little minds as students smacked, swatted, and carouselled their way around the pitch.<p>

Quidditch had returned to Hogwarts.

It was the first game of the season, Slytherin VS. Ravenclaw. It was a gruesome game, so many students found their faces in the dirt, puddle-mud masks on their faces. Broken and untended injuries found their way into the hospital wing. Everyone was trying to prove their worth upon the return of each child wizard's favourite game of brutes and bludgers. Ginny was watching from the stands, she had sat out of the Quidditch line-up this year. With her mind being in the clouds, six-feet-under and lost; her thoughts were anywhere but in her old beloved sport. She didn't see any other option. She knew, with confidence, had she participated – she might find herself face-to-face with a cursed bludger. It was much simpler to watch from the stands.

She watched with an avid eye on a certain Slytherin Seeker who was spearing his way through the crowds of busted wood and splintered broom. Rain was shedding over the grounds for its fourth consecutive week; a record in both Muggle and Wizarding history. Ginny didn't mind, she felt as though Mother Nature was grieving with her. Letting tears pour down in ravines from the clouds. Puffy eyed and shadowed with sadness were the clouds chalked against the dark. The trees were empty; the grass decaying, sinking holes of mud had made themselves prominent on the grounds. Hogwarts was without its beauty. As if the castle, too, was still repairing damages.

Ginny followed the darting, dashing boy as he swung to avoid on coming attacks, he flew with a gracefulness that Ginny was not accustomed to. Growing up with six brothers, grace and etiquette were not common elements to greet her at home or even at Hogwarts. Clumsiness was a very avid and faithful Weasley trait. Yet again, this boy had found his way into surprising the young unfooling witch. With his damper sense of contentment, she could only put a wall up against his galvanizing ways for so long. She worried, that any wall built a front her heart; was slowly being torn down by mere desperation. By a necessity to feel loved.

Smooth was the way in which he cut through the other players. Agile was the way in which he jetted on his broom with utmost speed. No cheap tactics, no trickery, just the game was what he played. It was as if the Slytherin in him had faded the cunning urge to win without much care for the means for how the win was obtained. Cunning was the way in which he began to melt the flaming redhead's cold, careful, and rigorously tamed heart.

Maybe, she thought, just maybe –

_SMASH_,

Sounded the wood as it splintered into massive wreckage. Students were screaming as the sound had echoed its way through the grounds. Chaos has ruptured the game and antagonized the crowds. Those who stood on the towers that were slowly crumbling grabbed onto each other. Some of the older boys and girls reached for their wands and shot spells into the debris. Swift wrist-flickering, as the colourful sparks flew to raise the falling wood. Teachers pounded amongst the benches reaching to pull students away from the fallen edges. Some students had to be pulled up by magic to avoid a nasty fall to their demise.

Through the commotion, Ginny managed to overhear the happenings.

"_It looks like he fell ..."_

"_Do you think he did it on purpose?"_

"Who is it?" Ginny shouted into the mounds of Hogwarts robes.

"It's _Draco Malfoy_" a younger boy retorted, in a fit of small giggles

* * *

><p>The Hospital Wing was full of aching limbs and screaming students as the wreckage on the Quidditch Pitch brought half of both teams and some bystanders into the infirmary. The white walls and white sheets were covered in dirt, mud and blood as students waited for Madam Pomfrey to distribute the proper potions. She was awry, as she trampled over her own feet in a frenzy. The room was monstrous with noise and irritants. One thing Madam Pomfrey couldn't stand was unnecessary racket in her infirmary, where she healed the sick and let the injured rest. Mocking sounds invaded the private space, rambunctious robes ran about in awe of their injured friends, first years fell a faint upon the gory sight. Some retold stories of the war arose, talking of death, how bodies were found in shambles; under rocks and stone in hallways they walked upon every day.<p>

Ginny let the stories be told, but she did so without a hearing ear. The walls could be the ones to listen to these absurdities, she thought. Ginny didn't need to relive Fred's death. She didn't need the nightmares to reinvent themselves in her mind. What she needed was silence, and so drowned were the voices of the boys and girls who knew nothing of the war, none of the death and fear, but just of the stories they were told.

Ginny spotted Draco amongst the crowd, laying on top of a bed in the far back of the room. He had his eyes shut in pain. Standing in the doorframe, she shifted her weight to the other foot and found her arms slowly crossing over her chest as she continued to debate in her mind why she ended up here in the first place. To see him in pain? To bask in the fact that he was hurting? To find some sort of amusement in his clumsiness? Was there an underlying masochism Ginny was suffering from by putting herself through constant turmoil?

* * *

><p>The steps toward his bed were muffled, Draco was without a clue that Ginny was there beside him; perched on the seat next to his pillow. She was listening to him breath. Slowly bewildered by the hospital wing, and how it slowly made itself scarce and empty. Only a few bodies remaining that needed overnight care and medical supervision. The sounds of the room seldom, an owl hovering by a window, the echo of its wings reverberating off the walls, a tray being placed on a metal counter making a hollow rattle, even just the sounds of the patients slivering beneath their sheets were merely a whisper.<p>

Draco was in excruciating pain. His entire body felt as though it were broken. Halved, even. One minute he saw the Snitch and within moments he had found himself below the stands in a muddled mess of bones and lacerations. He tried remembering, he kept sifting back through his memories of the game, trying to recall his distraction.

He saw a lot of red. Sparkling emerald eyes, and than just wood and cloth from the banners after that. It was just as he thought, Ginny Weasley would be the death of him. He couldn't help but be transfixed on the girl, she maddened him, annoyed him and at one point in time he loathed her; but as of late, she was the sole thing on his mind. Driving him out of it for fear of commitment, for fear of love for the mere fact that she was Ginny Weasley and he, Draco Malfoy. What he felt was merely a fictional emotion concocted by his own confused thoughts and guilt over the war.

Eyes open, she was right there, looking over him like he had a mystery text written on his face. She was reading him as if he were a magnificent puzzle unsolved, unordinary and extinct. He found himself doing the same in retort, looking into her eyes, devouring how soft and freckled her skin was. How bare it looked next to her Hogwarts robes. Her hair cascaded down the front of her left shoulder, tucked away behind her ear. The shades of red was undeniably gorgeous, Draco couldn't speak, he couldn't think – he was very much mesmerised by this creature before him. The very same one who looked to him with puzzlement.

"Hi" he muttered.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Here it goes, I want their love to develop like anyone else's, I don't want it to be immediate, a connection sure, but love is so much more than just a connection and attraction. So bear with us. In the mean time I would love to hear your thoughts; Impressions; Suggestions.

~ _Somewhere Sky_


	8. Winter Reigns

**Maybe Together**  
>By: Somewhere Sky<p>

Disclaimer: _Of course, as always - the rights to the Harry Potter realm of fiction belongs solely__  
><em>_to J.K Rowling and her brilliant mind. Although I may admit, I shall always be slightly jealous._

Chapter 8:  
>Winter Reigns<p>

This entire story was based off of this quote:  
>"<em>These are not rough times ... just the beginning of really good times."<em>  
>» — Denise N. Tracy<p>

* * *

><p>Leaves were covered in snow patterns and treaded footprints left behind. Winter had made its way to Hogwarts, galloping into the halls with such a force that the rain for months previous, had vanished; and an all new garnished hope prevailed over the grounds. It was as if the snow had not lifted the rain, but the spirits of the young souls that harboured beneath its scholarly walls and homed inside its tender brick arms. The stone towers were Ginny's refuge, a peaceful place to collect her thoughts as the winds continued to ice over and blanket the grounds in a heavy sheet of ice and powdered snow.<p>

The sky was painted grey, but even the clouds couldn't shadow the sun trying to peak out through the bleakness of winter.

Ginny was staring out of the window in the library, her textbooks strewn across the table. Ink, quills and parchment were in distress as the young witch had lost her concentration on her class work to what was happening outside. Hermione sat across from her, her eyes buried in the text McGonagall had assigned in Transfiguration. The impeccably bright brunette was utterly oblivious to Ginny's wavering mind. The way she stared into the scene past the brick with someone on her mind, the way her eyes no longer spilled with emptiness but rather a hope that she had been longing for, a feeling of sturdy awareness and the possibility of a future uninhabited by nightmares and memories of death. No longer did her eyes scream for the help that she couldn't dare ask aloud; her eyes stormed with laughter, a heartbeat that wasn't heartbroken, an earth-shattering belief that she could breathe once again.

Breathe.

She sighed, her chest expanding as she let the air fill her lungs. A smirk on her face; Hermione may not have caught on to what thoughts or actions provoked Ginny's new attitude, but what Hermione didn't miss was the sparkle of trouble in her new confidence. The brunette worried that Ginny was filling her void with poison, and the poison was bottled with blonde hair and a slithering charm.

"'mione, I'm done with this, Transfiguration can wait a few more hours" Ginny told her horrified friend. Or so were the young Gryffindor's eyes as she heard those words.

"But Ginny, it's due in four days!" She shouted as Ginny gathered her things as an mocking but common "Shhh" followed her outburst.

"I'll be fine, for Merlin's sake woman, get the bloody hell away from this dusty rubbish and come outside with me. Bask in the fact that its winter and we're alive to see it, stop nosing around in that nonsense" Ginny told her as her steps faded behind bookcases that separated Hermione from her friend.

One resounding "Ugh" and Ginny heard a second pair of footsteps scuffling beside her.

"What's gotten you so chipper?" She asked as she tried to keep up with the other which.

"Fred's dead."

"'tad morbid don't you think? To be happy when he's gone?"

"Not when he would have wanted me to celebrate life. I can't spend every day grieving a loss that's out of my control Hermione Granger, not when life _is_ in my control".

"That's very ... wise" a smile crept on Hermione's face, she was beginning to see a very old flame reignite inside of the younger Weasley's heart, one that was ashed on, annihilated and beaten but had sparked once more. For what the reason, Hermione Granger did not know and did not very well care, her friend seemed as though she had found comfort again. Hogwarts wasn't a battlefield or graveyard, it was home again to a girl who had been lost for an inevitable amount of time.

The snow was glorious and cold; Ginny bunched it up into her hands and just tossed it in the air. The sky was blue and the sun greeted them with rays to warm them but not melt their precious snow. Even Hermione felt the rush of excitement in the air, so much so that she joined Ginny in the ground's throwing snow above their heads and letting it drift onto their shoulder sand into their palms. They watched the other students join in, but drifting snow quickly became balls and the two women saw as snowballs glazed across the crowd. Some students dodged, some were smacked in the head and others were clever enough to pull out their wands to redirect the feather weaponry.

It was a good day.

* * *

><p>Draco had walked onto the grounds with a book in hand and a pleasant smile on his own face, but that smile soon bunched into a full blown grin when he saw the familiar face of Ginny Weasley. And she too; was beaming. It was so beautiful to see, just weeks ago she was vacant at heart, absent and disoriented by her loss. Draco's body flushed in awe, he was warmed by her courage. Her hair bounced in curls along her back, her eyes shaming the green of the trees into envy, her cheeks were rosy and before he realized what he was doing, the bewildered boy was headed straight for her.<p>

Hermione saw this and stopped. Her eyes followed his feet as they strode toward her unknowing friend. Her jaw met the cold floor as he walked up behind her, his leather-gloved hands meeting her waist and caressing her hips. Her turned her to face him, brushed away the stray hair that slipped from her hat with a thumb and just admired her.

"What do you –" Hermione bellowed, her voice drawing the attention of the mob of people covered in snow. All eyes followed her steaming ears as they watched Draco Malfoy holding the Weasley girl. They were two known enemies; two uncommon partners. She was a ginger with a temper to kill, and he was just a conceited rich-boy with daddy to pay for his woes. It was unheard of let alone acted out in front of half of Hogwarts' student body in the middle of what was one of the greatest snowball wars of post-war history.

He held her head against his, her hand in his as their noses grazed together.

"Gin – "Hermione provoked again only to be silenced by the wave of Ginny's hand.

His lips pulled hers against his, just as her body was pulled into his warmth. It was slow, hard and sweet; they kissed with a longing for each other; a longing to taste each other and desperation to show it to. Ginny could feel it in his pulse that he cared for her, in the same way she was beginning to care for him, this knowing in her gut came from the mere brush of his thumb against her cheek. She needed him without knowing she needed anyone at all.

"Hi" she whispered, breathless.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note:<strong> Look at that, we survived to chapter 8 already! How amazing is that? And to think I thought this would be another one of my Fanfictions gone forgotten, but it seems it's the most popular yet. I've started a forum if anyone is interested in following or joining. It's called His & Her Challenges, mostly for Ginny/Draco Pairings and Hermione/Draco pairings. It's a good way to find inspiration and I'll be starting a review thread so that our stories will be read and appreciated, y'know? Best of luck in writing, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!

P.S. There's a reason why this chapter and the previous one ended similarly.

_~ Somewhere Sky_


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